WRESTLING WITH ANGELS:

THE REVEREND JACOB HARDEN & THE DORLAND FAMILY

   Reverend Jacob Harden was a likeable young man that served as minister for the Mount Lebanon Methodist Episcopal church in Hunterdon County from 1856 to 1859. As a resident of Warren County, he traveled on horseback every Sunday across the Musconetcong River into Hunterdon County to preach at the remote rural church on the mountain. Founded and built in 1844, the little church was one of the strongholds of Methodism in that part of the state until members became increasingly hostile towards one another over the direction of their religious responsibilities. By March of 1856, the congregation was left without a preacher.

   In August of that year, Reverend David Graves of the Clinton M. E. Church approached the impressionable 19-year-age and asked him to preach to the people of Mount Lebanon for several weeks in order to quell the unrest. Reverend Harden took the challenge with enthusiasm.

“The first Sunday I preached for the Mount Lebanonites I had about thirty hearers, and my audience increased in numbers and interest each successive Sabbath, until my six weeks expired, and such were the feelings of the people toward me, that the fourth week I was there they offered to give me sixty dollars, which added to the Missionary appropriation ($50), would make $110 for my labors until the ensuing Annual Conference of April, 1857.”

   Following this success, he was encouraged by his peers and the people of Mount Lebanon to continue his mission at the church.  He boarded a room and stayed at the residence of Lorenzo Fisher until June of 1858. During this time, the popularity with his congregation enabled for the church to be renovated at a considerable expense and for the construction of a stone wall surrounding the cemetery. 

   It wasn’t long before the young reverend’s popularity and vigor lead to a whirlwind romance with one of the members of the church congregation. Her name was Hannah Louisa Dorland and she was the daughter of Samuel and Catharine Teeter Dorland, owners of the Teetertown mill. Her grandfather was John Teeter, the hamlet’s namesake and mill owner prior to 1820.

   During their courtship, they exchanged dozens of letters professing their love and the opinions of the day. When Hannah’s parents discovered the relationship, they insisted that the Reverend abide to his honor and marry her. Despite protests from him, he signed an agreement drawn up by the parents to marry her and care for her. The unhappy couple wed in October of 1858 with the unlikelihood of a sustaining marriage.  Hannah continued to live with her parents, while the Reverend began boarding at the home of Dewitt and Caroline Ramsey in Anderson, the following month. After spending a considerable amount of time apart, Hannah moved in with her husband and became employed as a housekeeper within the Ramsey residence on March 1, 1859.

   That day, the Ramseys asked the Reverend to travel to C. E. Hecht’s drugstore in Easton, PA and purchase a vial of powdered arsenic as a solution to a rodent problem. Lapsing into a despondent state of mind, he chose his fate by sprinkling the arsenic on an apple and giving it to his wife under the pretense that it was to prevent pregnancy. Becoming very ill the following day, arsenic was administered to Hannah in her flour mix. Over a series of days, her husband continued to blend the fatal powder in her drinking water, tea, and buttermilk. On March 9, Hannah died of arsenic poisoning.

   After initially being questioned by authorities on the death of his wife, Reverend Harden fled the area by riding horses and taking trains through New York, Vermont, Ohio, and Virginia, before being apprehended a month later. He was sent back to Belvidere, the county seat of Warren County, and stood trial for murder. Upon being convicted by a jury of his peers, he was sentenced to death for the heinous act and hanged in the courtyard of the jail on July 6, 1860. At the time, he was only 23 years of age.

   Hannah Louisa Dorland was laid to rest in the Pleasant Grove Methodist Church cemetery. Her husband was buried in an unmarked grave on the family farm near Blairstown to avoid desecration by angry mobs.

   In 1878, the Mount Lebanon church was renovated again during the pastorate of the Reverend William Stout. A spire reaching 85’ high was constructed and framed a bell that weighed 1,200 pounds. Despite improvements, the congregation continued to decline and was eventually disbanded in 1922.

Pleasant Grove Methodist Church

Hannah Louisa Dorland Harden, Samuel & Catherine Dorland (parents) and Hannah Teeter (grandmother)